The present invention relates to the characterization or isolation of bacteria of the Salmonella genus, by inoculating a specific culture medium with an inoculum presumed to contain said bacteria, growing the latter on the culture medium and developing one or more chromogenic or fluorigenic characterization phenomena using one or more biochemical characteristics which are specific to the bacteria sought.
Salmonella bacteria are Gram-negative enterobacteria which generally exhibit the following biochemical characteristics:
lactose-
ONPG-
urease-
H.sub.2 S+
No biochemical characteristic exists which can be attributed solely to the Salmonella genus, so the characterization of these bacteria generally requires the use of a plurality, or even a large number of biochemical tests, supplemented, where appropriate, by immunological tests or morphological examinations.